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Ability to postpone for longer than a day

mkohpotts says:

If I know I want to postpone a task for say 3 days or a week (for instance, something I can only do on a Friday and I want to do it next friday) right now I have to either change the due date or click postpone 7 times. Would be nice to just be able to click postpone and then say "1 week"...

Posted at 4:14pm on January 28, 2007

jmc says:

Yes, indeedy. I've got too many tasks on the go, so too many land up being postponed quite a few times.

Posted 8 years ago

chiquitar says:

True. Also helpful for postponing an overdue task until tomorrow instead of today.

Posted 8 years ago

britne says:

this would be good for skipping over weekends too. i have projects at work that if i don't finish friday, i want to postpone to monday.

Posted 8 years ago

viscouse says:

Wow. Old topic :)
I'd like to put a plug in for this as well. I aggregate certain tasks and do them on the weekend. I made a spreadsheet that is a todo list that basically collects todos due within the next week, and lists them as tasks for the weekend, cause no todo list could do that.

It would be great to postpone a task for the weekend, or even yet, have a setting that shows for that task (round due date to the next weekend).

Posted 7 years ago

raymond.bergmark says:

Maybe you could tag them with weekend and then have a smartlist searching for tag:weekend AND dueBefore:"1 week of today" or similar?

Posted 7 years ago

viscouse says:

rajjan, thank you very much. That is an excellent idea!

I tried it and think it works well. I think a little tweaking is in order, but it does search properly though. Your smartlist works well, and captures exactly what I asked for.

Posted 7 years ago

ranbarton says:

I would suggest adding OR due:Saturday OR due:Sunday to your search to catch anything coming due this weekend as well. I've had a weekend search (using just those terms) for a while, and it's a great way to look ahead and see what's planned for the weekend ahead.

Posted 7 years ago

viscouse says:

I tweaked it a little to say tag:weekend AND dueBefore:Monday

Seemed cleaner than tag:weekend AND dueBefore:"1 week of today" OR due:Saturday OR due:Sunday

Honestly, I don't know which I like better. One says look a week ahead, and perhaps get a jump on upcoming stuff regardless of weekend, one is just looking at what's due/overdue before Monday.

Have to try them out.

Posted 7 years ago

rubyji says:

I just want to say this feature is still needed. I often postpone things for 3 days or a week or more.

Posted 7 years ago

wendyjadewong says:

Yes, this feature is definitely still needed.

Maybe there could be a postpone button with default setting (e.g. one day, one working day, one hour), and then an optional drop-down menu on a sub-button (I don't know what these are actually called, but I'm thinking similar to the back button on most browsers), which gives you other options (one hour, one day, three days, one week, other, until [date], etc).

It would mean that you wouldn't necessarily have to click more than once (for default settings), and 'p' would still postpone by your default time.

I hate when I get excited about things that don't even exist (yet!). ^_^

Posted 6 years ago

mariano.benitez says:

+1

Posted 6 years ago

sgri says:

This issue has been going on for ages, I also would like to be able to postpone to a date or by several days
RTM - have you got a response for us?

Posted 6 years ago

krissiegel says:

I would love this as well. Make it a very simple and easy interface though as I don't want to go through too many dialogs to do this.

Posted 6 years ago

jeff.collier says:

Yes this is an important feature to add. Outlook lets you "right click" and select from a drop down (tomorrow, this week, next week, etc.) Its one of the features making it difficult for me to make the jump to rtm.

Posted 6 years ago

cchez says:

+1

Posted 5 years ago

levine770 says:

+1.

There should be an option to postpone for an amount of time (like a 1 week or 3 months) and until a given date (with a pop-up calendar)

Posted 5 years ago

ranbarton says:

What would be the difference between postponing a task 3 months and simply changing its due date back by 3 months?

Posted 5 years ago

fireweed says:

Pleaase can we have the oppositte of postpone as well - see :http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/ideas/8710/

Posted 5 years ago

chaimgoodman says:

+1 for postponing longer than 1 day at a time.

Posted 5 years ago

marcus.meier says:

I want to throw in another vote for this feature. It would be a huge help for a lot of my "waiting for" tasks.

Posted 5 years ago

allen.sooredoo says:

+1

Posted 5 years ago

bakpaknmom says:

I too would like this.

Posted 5 years ago

edubaldan says:

+1

Posted 5 years ago

rubyji says:

@ranbarton, RTM remembers how many times an item has been postponed and that value can be used as search criteria and in making smart lists. If you just change the date, you'll never know what the original due date was or how many times you've procrastinated the task.

Posted 5 years ago

ranbarton says:

@rubyji Good point. My sense from these boards is that few users use smart lists as arcane as that (I am one of those who do), so I think for most people that's not an issue, but you're right that the two are not actually equivalent.

Posted 5 years ago

alange says:

+1

Posted 5 years ago

andy.lawson says:

Agreed. I'd like a postpone until feature - as indicated in this (v similar) thread;http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/ideas/10535/

Posted 5 years ago

cotarmanach says:

+1

Posted 5 years ago

pcjabber says:

+1. For reasons that rubyji mentioned, it's awkward to just change the due date, and more awkward to hit "postpone" 6 times when the task's due date moves by a week (for example).

Posted 5 years ago

figgs says:

+1 on this one!

Posted 5 years ago

mrw0127 says:

+1. But if it's a recurring task (esp a daily one), a "skip" option would be probably be more helpful.

Posted 5 years ago

wheretheskygrows says:

"Skip" for recurring tasks seems to make the most sense. If today is trash day and I forgot to take the trash out, if I postpone it, it doesn't make sense to do the task tomorrow. It's too late! I have to wait until next week (the next occurrence of the task!)

Posted 4 years ago

stoffman says:

+1 for postponing longer than a day

Posted 4 years ago

cikkcakk says:

+1 for postponing longer than a day

Posted 4 years ago

apiccirilli says:

+1 - this would definitely add more significance to the # of times something was postponed.

Posted 4 years ago

ckrahe says:

+1

Posted 4 years ago

meggerud says:

+1

Posted 4 years ago

rubyji says:

Time for my third annual "yes this feature is still needed" post. :-)

Posted 4 years ago

vnt says:

+1

Posted 4 years ago

saroele says:

I also need this!

I would even add this request: when you have a series of tasks that have a due date reflecting the order in which they have to executed, it would be nice to select them all together, and then be able to postpone them all for eg. 1 week.

The order will be kept, and it's only 1 action to reschedule your work if something unforeseen came in between.

Posted 4 years ago

darrenjohncole says:

+1

Posted 4 years ago

werner.peter says:

+1 for postponing longer than 1 day at a time.

Posted 4 years ago

relevart says:

+1 Good Idea!

Posted 4 years ago

rtm.haverly says:

As i understand it (as a newbie), the 'every x period' repeat feature is tied to the Due Date -- if that is so, than postponing the task via changing that date upsets the next appearance of the task once i get around to doing the current one.

Is this so?

+1

But basically, given the pattern in which i do the tasks of my life, if i do not get to the task 'today', its execution goes til next week, same day of the week -- a postponing of 7 days/a week (in one case, to next month) is my usual procedure in Outlook (which TASKS are not yet replaced by rtm due at least this matter and the login/try again offline issue i have reported.

I would like to be able to define a working week to my work list. Then when I postpone a task on Friday it will be rescheduled to Monday.

Posted 4 years ago

aredd says:

Annoying when you postpone a work task on Friday and won't get to it until Monday but still see it through the weekend.

My vote is for a dynamic drop down where a simple click postpones for 1 day. A click and rag down gives a selection of 1 day, 2day, 3 days, 4 days, 5, days, 6 days, 1 week, 1 month. Same as rtm.haverly suggested

Posted 4 years ago

dburkeamberfire.net says:

rs_simon has it working the way I would want.Tasks on Work list should be set so that they can skip Saturday and Sunday when postponed

Posted 4 years ago

shmulikaw says:

It would be nice if you allow Choose to postpone a task a day, or hour or week, etc.

Posted 4 years ago

sfpmdvs says:

To skip a recurring task I use 'delete' and then 'continue repeating'. I'm ok with that.

For postponing 2-3 days I hit the postpone button that many times click click click. I'm ok with that.

What I really want is a nice big "postpone 1 week" button. That's because I've often scheduled certain tasks for certain days of the week for a reason and the needed free time will most likely be the same day one week later.

Cheers!

Posted 4 years ago

jonty1982 says:

agree, still needed

Posted 4 years ago

blocke says:

I don't think you'd need new UI for this.

Make it so you can edit the due date for a task and put something like "+5 days" and have it mean "move the due date of the task ahead by 5 days" instead of just interpreting it as "set the date as 5 days from now" as it currently behaves. Also doing "-5 days" would be awesome too.

Posted 3 years ago

gord.tomlin says:

+1

Posted 3 years ago

mackay.merlin says:

I'd like to be able to set it to ANY value - both more than and less than a day.

For example, if I'm working away and the next task becomes due, I'd like to be able to push it back 5 minutes, or maybe 15 minutes, or half an hour or an hour.

To me, the simplest thing would be to have in the "settings" page a place where you could put your own default time for the postpone length. It's pretty easy to quickly duck in and change a value then get back out again.

For example if you're doing your weekly review or if it's first thing in the morning and you're planning your day, you might want to have your default set to "tomorrow".

Alternatively, if you're in the middle of your busy day and there's phone calls coming in and things you're in the middle of you might just want to nudge your next "todo" item back 10 minutes or so.

Posted 3 years ago

newmilkentry says:

I think "postpone" works wrongly at present. What is the point of postponing an overdue task to today? The task is still asking to be completed now.

No, if we postpone a task at all, it is because we don't want to do it now.

We don't want to compromise on the simplicity of the UI for the sake of features. Please don't add twenty three menu items to a single finger-slide. Let RTM's tasteful judgement prevail.

But I do feel that "postpone" is broken at the moment.

Posted 3 years ago

relevart says:

No use for it. I can just hit the button multiple times or change the due date.

Posted 3 years ago

e133tc1pher says:

On the android app I want to long-press on the postpone button and have it come up with a few standard values or a custom one that opens a text box. Normal presses still do one day.

Posted 3 years ago

mikabren says:

I haven't read all the comments, but the TS (Topic Starter = mkohpotts) his idea seems only useful when you want to know how many times you have postponed. But even this function would lack it's usability since you can't see with how many days you've postponed. (E.g. I can postpone a task each day, or with more than 1 day at a time.)

I think simply changing the due date of the task is enough to get the same result. And if you really want to know that the task already was on the list last week, you could add a note, which costs (unfortunately) 3 seconds more of your time.

The RTM dev team gets overloaded with feature requests. I think, until their team gets bigger, they shouldn't focus on this feature, but on other, more important, features!

Posted 3 years ago

steveshay says:

@mikabren, what is "important" depends on how you use RTM. For example, I never share or publish my tasks, so for me any improvements to those feature wouldn't even make the list, but for others they're essential. Most weeks however, I do have the need to skip a recurring task or to postpone for more than 1 day. If I simply change the due date of a task it is no longer on my list when I'm creating my end of the week (and monthly!) status reports. It's just as important to know what I couldn't get to, as it is to know what I did accomplish. Postpone is too cumbersome to use for anything other than daily tasks. A skip feature may not be important to everyone, but if implemented simply it wouldn't be all that taxing either. A dropdown already exist so adding skip to the list should be trivial. Skip would simply change the due date based on the repeating rule (the same way completing a task would) and it would increment the skipped count rather than completing the item (like postpone does now). A skipped: operator in search options would complete this feature.

Posted 3 years ago

osarjeant says:

This seems counter intuitive to RTM which is to get work done. If your postponing that often, review your due date criteria or stop making up due dates. Or stop procrastinating. Postponing is necessary, but RTM should not encourage or expand this practice.

Posted 3 years ago

igorrs says:

@osarjeant's advice ("stop making up due dates") is very helpful indeed.One practice that has made me waste much less time inside the task manager is to create the tasks without due dates (just put priorities on them) whenever possible.

Posted 3 years ago

igorrs says:

Also, it would be bad to have the Postpone button ask me a question everytime I click it. The feature should be available via another button and/or configured per-user in the settings.

Posted 3 years ago

edyerkerobins says:

What if "p" were kept as "postpone for 1 day", but a different shortcut or access point could postpone for longer - a week, 3 days, etc.?

Here's how I use RTM (for better or worse) & why I voted for this feature. I have a smart list, "What's The Hold Up?", which tracks over a certain number of postponements (currently 3). Having to postpone twice just to advance 2 days (this is especially true of overdue items) puts everything on the list. But I'm much too lazy to postpone and THEN edit to add a new due date. It would be great to hit p^1 week (to give an off-the-top-of-my-head-example) to maintain the integrity of my "What's The Hold Up?" list for stuff that I've really been putting off for a while.

Posted 3 years ago

mediaarts says:

This is, in effect, already a part of the web app: Select task(s) > Type `p` to postpone > Type `d` and enter new due date. If you are postponing a task, then, by definition, the due date has changed. The original due date is unimportant—and if it is, just append it to the task name.

Posted 3 years ago

rubyji says:

Yes, PLEASE!

Posted 3 years ago

andy.lawson says:

I'd really like to do this from the android app/widget. Any possibility?

Cheers.

Posted 2 years ago

freeminder says:

I also like the idea of the possibility to postpone a task both for less and more than a day. It will be also great if it doesn't affect the simplicity of the default postponing behavior with P letter shortcut.

Posted 2 years ago

bzmomv9 says:

+1 for 'skip' feature+1 for multiple postpone options.

Posted 2 years ago

mr.louis says:

+1

Posted 2 years ago

kathleen.attfield says:

I'd like this too

Posted 2 years ago

doshit says:

+1

Posted 2 years ago

tbelova1 says:

I'd like this too

Posted 2 years ago

marksund says:

3 days and 1 week postponements would be really convenient. I love RTM - I recommend it to everyone - this would be a really nice convenience!

Or - when I edit an item's due date, there's the basic list for the next 6 days - it would be so nice if it had the next 7 days so I could click it instead of more click to go over to the date picker.

Posted 2 years ago

marksund says:

I shoulda said - I use RTM almost exclusively on the iPhone and iPad, occasionally computer - the integration and mobility are awesome.

Posted 2 years ago

papzadsl says:

Yes, I +1 for friday-to-monday, and possibly 1 week quick posponing options. Friday evening with Bob are so clunky, when postponing multiple tasks at once to the next monday.

Posted 2 years ago

alicea says:

+1, in the interim, once you've done your postponing for today, create a smartlist for dueAfter:today then further postpone tasks. Not only does it keep everything on the page while you are postponing, but you can see your task move down around other tasks by date so you can pick the better postponement date. The task stays selected so you just keep hitting P.

Posted 2 years ago

txshawn says:

+1, emphatically!

Posted 2 years ago

relevart says:

If it's doesn't complicate the interface, go ahead...but i never felt the need for it.

Posted 2 years ago

rgiaquinta says:

Definitely need other postpone options beyond "one day".

Posted 1 year ago

anton.im says:

Sorry, but I disagree with it. If you want to postpone a task for 2-3 days it's absolutely no problem at all to click "postpone" several times. If you need to postpone it on a week or more, it's again absolutely not a problem simply to enter new date. This function if added will not make life any simpler - you will still need 2 clicks (E.g. postpone... → select how many days). And then everyone will ask for different postpone rules - over a weekend, for 1 week, for the next Friday 13 etc.

Posted 1 year ago

trevormccready says:

I would like to see the following postpone options:tomorrow (1 day)next week (till Monday) 1 week (7 days from now)

Posted 1 year ago

stephaniemiller664 says:

definitely I guest i say yes.

Posted 1 year ago

jakeub says:

+1 this would be nice, a MAX number of postpones would be nice too

Posted 1 year ago

chad.burkins says:

Partially agree with this request, would like to be able to postpone a task until tomorrow, rather than today. 90% of the team, I'm trying to clean up my tasks, and want them for tomorrow, not today. Perhaps capital P ("P) for postpone until tomorrow, with lowercase p ("p") continuing to represent postpone until today ?

Posted 1 year ago

shardvicens says:

custom length postpone would definitely be useful for me.

1. It would help retain the postpone count2. On mobile or on a list like overdue, if you click the postpone button, you lose your selection because it is no longer on the list.3. When I am REALLY behind, I may have a week or a month of lower priority tasks that I didn't perform, but are in an order based on when I thought of it, or which one was more important to do sooner. If I select them all and set a due date or click postpone, they all end up on the same day. What I want is to select them all and postpone them all by 1 week, or one month, thus maintaining the order.

I also would like to be able to postpone by hours or minutes. Mostly for mobile use, when I get a notification I would like to just postpone it to later that day instead. A long press on postpone to bring up options would be perfect.

Perhaps an easy implementation would be to set up the due date field to take more commands like: